PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- When Daisuke Matsuzaka joined the Boston Red Sox in the winter of 2006, it finalized a transaction that cost more than $103 million dollars. The Red Sox bid more than $51 million to win the rights to negotiate with the Japanese pitcher and then gave him a six-year, $52 million contract.

That was the way the old system worked to extricate players out of the Japanese baseball league -- where teams had to post blind bids with no cap and then negotiate with the team that owned the player's rights.

Expensive as it was, it was still cheaper than the $175 million total the Yankees spent this winter to acquire Masahiro Tanaka. With the posting fee capped at $20 million, Tanaka then chose the contract and team he wanted to sign for.

As Matsuzaka rightly asserted, the new system benefits the player.

"Probably better for players who can demand that big contract," he said.

Still, Matsuzaka has no regrets of the system he went through seven years ago or that he would have went through the current one instead.

"I’ve never really thought of it in that way," he said. "There’s a process and I had to go through my process in order for this process to come into play."

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On May 29, Dillon Gee had a 6.34 ERA through the first 10 starts of the season. The next day he began a 22-start surge to end his season over which his ERA fell to just 2.71.

And that is closer to the Gee that Terry Collins expects this year.

"Dillon had a couple minor things that he had to battle through in the beginning of the season," Collins said. "I think we’re going to see a very successful Dillon Gee. He now knows exactly what he’s got to do….I think part of our whole spring training is to make sure we get him game ready April 1 as if it was May 15."